BMW M5 Competition a big surprise

Andrew ChestertonThe West Australian

Thursday, 9 August 2018 12:55PM

Camera IconBMW M5 Competition is transformed once under way, with 0-100km/h in 3.3 seconds.

Whoever said bigger is better clearly wasn’t talking about performance cars, because nothing kills the thrills stone dead quicker than dragging a car weighing the same as Kanye West’s ego around a racetrack.

Which is bad news for the new M5 Competition, which is plenty big. At near enough 5m long, 2m wide and tipping the scales around two tonnes, BMW’s (even more) flagship performance sedan should deliver all the dynamic prowess of one of those stair trucks you see careening around airports.

But then, somewhere between pushing the start button and engaging the car’s most sporting settings, a vanishing act of David Copperfield proportions occurs, with the Competition’s significant dimensions transforming into something far more athletic.

Suddenly you’re behind the wheel of something much smaller than BMW’s biggest full-blown M car, the edges of the road not feeling quite so close to your giant 20-inch alloys, the steering direct and responsive, the body sitting flat enough to iron on through even the tightest of corners.

Camera IconA full leather interior is included.

It really is an amazing piece of wizardry. The secret, BMW’s engineers tell us, is in stiffening the chassis wherever possible (from the adaptive suspension to the new anti-roll mounts and additional under-bonnet bracing) to remove any rocking or lolling about when tackling bends.

The engine helps too, of course. The BMW M5 Competition’s monstrous twin-turbo V8 is now good for a huge 460kW (up 19kW on the regular M5) and 750Nm.

The power is fed to all four wheels via a near-telepathic eight-speed automatic, but can be funnelled exclusively to the rear tyres at the push of a few buttons.

And better still, you can switch the traction control to a half-off setting, allowing for all sorts of semi-sideways heroics before the car’s electronic brain senses you’ve reached the far limits of your talent and quickly drags you back into line.

The braver still can deactivate traction control all together, which, combined with rear-wheel-drive mode, turns the M5 Competition into the biggest and possibly most expensive drift car of all time.

It’s the slower way around a race circuit, sure, but it’s also huge buckets of tyre-smoking fun.

All that power helps push the M5 Competition to 100km/h in an unbelievable 3.3 seconds, while 200km/h will whip past your windows in just 10.8 seconds.

Camera IconDeactivating traction control in rear-wheel-drive makes a drift car.

The top speed is a highway patrol-baiting 250km/h, but if you undergo BMW’s driver training they’ll lift it to 305km/h.

Away from the track, though, this Competition version of the M5 is almost as good at transforming into a comfortable everyday commuter as its less-hairy siblings.

The adaptive suspension can be softened and the steering lightened, to make toppling traffic a cosseting doddle.

The M5 Competition will cost you $229,000 when it arrives in October, a considerable jump over the regular M5 which arrived with a $199,529 price tag.

But there’s plenty of performance kit, plus new and lightweight alloys, LED headlights with auto-dipping and active cornering and a “full leather” interior to help justify the asking price.

Perhaps more importantly, the money buys you not just the best all-wheel-drive M5 to date, but what is probably the best M5, period.